After many claims that Arsenal had all but won the race to sign William Saliba, their local rivals Tottenham have stepped in to foil their plans.
According to RMC Sport’s Mohamed Bouhafsi, Spurs have waded in with a €30m offer excluding bonuses, which is more than Saint-Etienne were expecting.
In fact, it appears that Tottenham have completely overtaken the Gunners, who thought they had won the race after reaching a ‘global agreement’ with the Ligue 1 side for the young centre-back.
Of course, nothing is done until it’s done, and Arsenal might up their offer, but if they do plan on doing so, they will have to do it quickly, as a meeting is expected to take place on Saturday to ‘finalise’ the operation with Spurs.
🚨Info @RMCsport : Coup de théâtre dans le dossier #Saliba ! #Tottenham a transmis une offre dépassant les 30M€ hors bonus pour Saliba. Une offre dépassant les attentes de #ASSE. Réunion demain pour finaliser l’operation alors que #Arsenal avait trouvé un accord global.
— Mohamed Bouhafsi (@mohamedbouhafsi) July 12, 2019
This could suggest one of Tottenham’s defenders could be on their way out, which comes amid speculation that Toby Alderweireld wouldn’t be against trying something new in Italy, with AS Roma trying hard to acquire his services.
They just aren’t willing to pay his £25m release clause.
